Page 426 - Travels in Arabis (Vol I)

XXIV.] TRAVELS IN OMAN. 387

built round an open court. Around each
floor there runs a gallery, into which the se­

veral apartments open. These are usually

spacious and lofty, with ceilings of wood,
often painted in rude devices. The walls,
which are whitewashed, are formed of cane;

and around them on pegs hang their horse
and camel trappings. They make their floors

of earth smoothed and hardened by rollers,
and usually cover them with a mat; but no

furniture of any description is seen in their
rooms, their meals being taken on a carpet

spread for the purpose. These houses have
but one entrance ; they are surrounded by a
wall, and seem designed to serve as places of

defence. The dwellings of the poorer classes
are of the same materials, and consist of only

two square rooms, one above the other—the
upper one answering for their hareem, and

the under for the reception of visitors.
Maskat is a great mart for slaves : nearly

all those required for the supply of the shores
of the Persian Gulf, Baghdad, and Basrah,

are purchased here. The Imams formerly
engaged in this traffic, and realized thereby

an annual revenue of sixty thousand dollars,
2 c 2